(Untitled)

[somepeople]

Dangit -- I've been grousing for years about people who say "a myriad of X," and only now I learn that the noun form is perfectly acceptable and etymologically sound, as "myriad" derives from the greek word for "10,000." I hate when I'm duped by the evil society of false grammarians!

Comments

[somepeople]

Bitter old copy editors make the best false grammarians. "I may not have a creative bone in my body, but I do know many language rules, and therefore I am powerful and wise and just plainly better than you."

[meestagoat]

But what about cute young bitter copyeditors, like me?

[somepeople]

Copy editor my arse -- note Merriam-Webster's preferred usage for the noun form. (...of "copy editor," not "arse.") You are a cute young bitter *academic*. When they started paying you to study hi-falutin' literature, you evolved from a semi-conscious ink-stained creature in a green eyeshade into a goddess of the humanities.

[stargazzy]

Excuse me, but Evil Society of False Grammarians should have been capitalized, Mr. Editor Man!

[somepeople]

Their style is to keep the initial letter down. That's how evil they are.

[meestagoat]

You are now on the ESoFG watch list; beware.

[somepeople]

Great - now I'll *never* be allowed on the Copyediting Fun Cruise with all the cute bitter young copy editors.

[nyquil_baby]

Just to show how nerdy a family I come from, I actually remember my dad and aunt having about a 10-minute argument once about whether or not this was an acceptable use of "myriad." I'm pretty sure they decided "a myriad of" was grammatically incorrect, so I've tried to avoid using it. I'm glad to see it is, since I used to say it sometimes, too.